Dublin Bus drivers feel they are being "stabbed in the back" in a proposed new deal with the National Transport Authority (NTA) according to a People Before Profit TD.
A proposed new agreement with the NTA would see Dublin Bus drivers receive up to almost 15% pay increases in some cases.
However in return they would have to work different hours and different routes.
Around 100 drivers protested in Dublin city last week ahead of a vote on the deal on August 12th.
The new agreement is aimed at improving Dublin Bus' competitiveness and but some drivers are unhappy with driving different routes and are concerned they will spend more time on the road within their 39-hour-week.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett says bus drivers aren't being rewarded for their frontline role during the pandemic.
"In what is already quite a hard job with quite unsociable hours they are going to be asked to work even longer working days, much more unsociable hours, and have very very little family time.
"And they just think they can't do that and they shouldn't be asked to do that."
"When we've had all this praise of frontline workers, and these were very much frontline workers who had to work through the whole Covid pandemic, being rewarded and they really feel they are being stabbed in the back with these proposals."
